Hey guys, Ive been part of this forum since it started. Havent been here in a while though.

Heres my question:

I had a Utec installed and tuned last year on my 03 enthus.

Since the install my stock battery went bad. I figured it was due to the battery being from 02-03 and I store the car half the season and dont get to drive it much.

So I bought a new battery, drove the car a few times, then last weekend I went to take her out, and she started up in limp or "safe" mode. So I disconected the battery for a day, restarted her and she ran fine.

Now i dont know what that has to do with the utec or the battery, but I swear the Utec is constantly draining my battery out. Even when the cars off.

The Utec was installed by pros who have done many many installs, on subaru's.

Anyone have any info that might help me figure out whats going on?

 

How do you know the UTEC is draining you battery? If you disconnect the UTEC and just keep your stock ECU plugged in, does the battery stop draining?

I would go looking for another cause of the current draw - or maybe your alternator is going bad - what does the voltage read with the car off and the car running?

 

This is a quick test:

Unplug the (-) terminal from the battery. Hook up a current meter in series with the battery and the disconnected cable. Read the current being drawn under 'normal' conditions. Next, disconnect the UTEC and reconnect the stock ECU. Reread the current readings. If the first reading is much higher then the 2nd reading then the UTEC is your problem.

With all the hardware issues I've read about with the UTEC it is very possible there is a bad component that is drawing excess current.

If storing the car, it is also a good idea to unhook the battery, or hook the battery up to a trickle charger to keep it topped off. These cars don't sit well when it comes to the electrical system.

 

thanks....can you tell me what hardware issues youve heard about with the utecs?

 

Read around on the forums. There have been quite a few people with hardware issues.

 

The UTEC has a red LED the illuminates when it is drawing power. The UTEC also plugs directly into the factory harness, so unless they spliced wires to install it, I would assume the UTEC is not the cause of your short. You could always just unplug the UTEC completely, and run off the ECU to see if your battery still goes dead...

 

If there is a bad cap on the power supply it will draw excessive current when the car is off. There are several reasons why an electronic device would pull current when its not supposed to. The only real way to test it is with a current meter and the process of elimination.

 

All good info, thanks guys. Any idea how this might be putting the car into safe mode?

Every time ive left it for a week I come back and the car has power but its in safe mode...

 

the utec IS the culprit for my application.

 

sometimes when i try staring the car it refuses to start...after repeated attempts it fires up normally. that was 1 week after i installed the UTEC !
but recently the car is running perfectly.

 

O no, I really don't want to start having doubts about installing my Utec. I was so excited. I'm going with an all n/a tune and reading this thread just got me a little nervous about random hardware issues with the Utec.

 

ya for NA, the osirus reflash is best. the closed/open loop transition on the UTEC is pretty annoying

 

I have no open/close loop transition on my utec. It all depends on who tunes it and how.

What codes are you throwing when the car is in limp mode? Without that info it could be anything...utec or not.

It could be your throttle body gone bad (as in my case), which was shown by reading the DTC when it went limp.